TFC draws L.A. Galaxy

Landon Donovan of the Los Angeles Galaxy holds the Western Conference trophy surrounded by teammates after beating Real Salt Lake in the MLS Western Conference Championship last weekend. (GETTY IMAGES)

With that, head coach Aron Winter ended Tuesday’s conference call after learning of TFC’s next Champions League challenge — a two-leg quarterfinal with the Supporters’ Shield-holding L.A. Galaxy the first week of March.

Winter addressed preparing during a shortened preseason after finishing just five points above the Vancouver Whitecaps at the bottom of the 2011 Major League Soccer table — something he said shouldn’t play a large factor as TFC avoids an MLS outsider until at least the semifinal.

“We are in the same situation (as LA),” he said. “We’re going to start pre-season at the same time.”

In a draw carried out Tuesday at CONCACAF’s New York City headquarters, it was determined this year’s MLS Cup finalists will travel to Toronto —­ and potentially the Rogers Centre — for the opening leg of next year’s knockout phase.

Upon finishing second to Pumas during the 16-team group stage, the Reds were fortunate to avoid Mexico’s Santos Laguna and Monterrey in the last eight — clubs that finished on top of Group B and D, respectively, last month.

As Mexico’s Clausura (the Mexican league’s closing tournament) runs January through May, Toronto was lucky to avert potentially facing in-form Mexican opposition with just a month of pre-season training under its belt.

Instead, the Reds will host a fellow MLS club that will be fighting identical pre-season fitness issues before the 2012 MLS season picks up.

More encouraging, the Reds are, unbelievably, unbeaten in four straight against the Galaxy, including a 2-2 draw at the Home Depot Center in June. All before Toronto unloaded and reloaded with a pair of designated players following the halfway point this year.

Any way you look at it, Tuesday’s draw was comforting for all of the parties involved — TFC, LA, MLS and the region.

It gives Toronto a marquee matchup that could very well boost the profile of the tournament among casual season ticket holders while allowing the Galaxy and TFC to escape the task of getting an unlikely result in Mexico until what could be the final.

“For our fans it’s a great draw … but it’s not going to be easy,” Winter said.

The quarterfinals will also feature an all-Mexican matchup between Morelia and current tournament holders Monterrey, Pumas playing El Salvador’s Metapan and the Seattle Sounders meeting Santos Laguna.

PLAYING THE PERCENTAGES

Last April’s Champions League final was a clear model of what the tournament’s creators had in mind when CONCACAF expanded the UEFA-style competition three years ago.

With 20,000 Salt Lake fans packed into Rio Tinto Stadium and a nationally televised Champions League audience that wasn’t filling pubs to watch a pair of European giants, the region licked its lips during the spectacle of an MLS-Mexican final.

In what could be an important repeat of the 2010 edition, all three MLS sides that advanced beyond the group stage — TFC, Seattle and the Galaxy — make up the bottom portion of the quarterfinal bracket.

The winner of TFC’s home-and-away will move on to face the winner of Seattle’s series.

As a result, one of Toronto, Seattle, LA or Mexican side Santos Laguna will be in the April 2012 final for a chance to advance to the FIFA Club World Cup.

While dispatching Santos Laguna will be no easy task, one might say Tuesday’s anticipated CONCACAF draw gives MLS a 75% chance of having one of its clubs advance to the final against what in all likelihood will be Mexican opposition.

Although CONCACAF’s version of the Champions League remains a far cry from Confederations around the globe, the competition will continue to grow among casual fans with high-profile championship tilts involving a variety of clubs from different federations.

This year’s knockout phase is setting up to be a replica of the last, ending in an entertaining fixture between a pair of soccer nations that flat out don’t like each other.

MLS NOTES

Toronto’s all-time leading scorer, Canadian Dwayne De Rosario, has been named to a shortlist for league MVP alongside Houston’s Brad Davis and Dallas’ Brek Shea. On 16 goals and 12 assists (just four assists behind Davis) in 2011, De Rosario is the runaway favourite … Kansas City’s C.J. Sapong was named this year’s best rookie by an overwhelming majority Tuesday. Sapong’s five goals and five assists don’t do justice to the quality and maturity the first-round draft pick demonstrated while being the only Sporting player to appear in all 34 regular season matches … The Galaxy will be the first team to play in and host an MLS Cup in two weeks time since the New England Revolution did it in front of 61,316 at Gillette Stadium in 2002 … And it took less than 24 hours for the Home Depot Center to sellout the 27,000 available seats for the Nov. 20 final between the home side and Houston Dynamo … While we’re on the subject, the league raised its average attendance by a remarkable 7.2% this year to 17,872, surpassing the NHL (17,132) and NBA (17,323) on an average, per-game attendance basis. Major League Soccer’s previous average attendance mark was 17,406 during the league’s inaugural season in 1996.